October 16, 2014

The latest Pure Pool update is available to download now and includes the following improvements:

- New launcher – controller compatible and fixes resolution issue; the game now launches in 1920 x 1080.
- In-game freezing during online matches fixed.
- Option to mute voice volume. This can be accessed from the options menu.
- Top Menu interface updated.
- "Quick Game" option fixed when playing with keyboard & mouse.

Many thanks to all those who’ve taken the time to report the issues they’ve been experiencing. This has been extremely helpful for us in troubleshooting, diagnosing and even solving issues. The development team are still working on fixes for some other problems that have been outlined here and will be checking the forums daily for your comments.

Your feedback is extremely important to us and we will continue to take it on board.

We’ve also recently added the Pure Pool official soundtrack, and the soundtrack bundle – which includes both the game and the official soundtrack.

Reviews

“It’s a pool simulator which does exactly what its name suggests and that’s simulate not only the game of pool but the culture that comes with it.”
Mouse n Joypad

“Those looking for a realistic, dare I say pure, rendition of pool will find a lot to love.”
Technology Tell

About This Game

Let the makers of Hustle Kings™ transport you to the slick and exciting world of Pure Pool. Experience a living, breathing, bustling Pool Hall from the convenience of your living room – all wrapped up in VooFoo Studios signature jaw-dropping visuals! Whether you prefer to spend your time playing solo or weighing up against the competition, connect and prepare to be blown away by the next best thing to real life Pool.

With 4 game modes from classic American 8 Ball Pool to Killer, 4 challenges from Perfect Potter to Royal Rumble and full live online Multiplayer, rack-up, hone your skills and compete against the best in online tournaments and matches for a place in the Global Leaderboards. Pure Pool also builds a DNA profile as you play creating an AI interpretation of yourself, your friends and your foes – which you can still play against, even when they’re not online.

This game is so much fun, it really makes you feel like your playing "in the real" It's a chillax kinda game, played it also with friends and had a blast.Also i suggest playingon master difficulty, it adds an intuitive sense of realism.Which is a win/win for people like myself, who enjoy thegame, but can never find time to play.

Pure Pool, really good graphics, it looks really beautiful. the gameplay/controls is good, in my opinion, I know that some peoples, have been disappointed about it, but I think its okay.

There is a bad thing in my opinion, I would really have liked to have a kind of mastermode, for more advanced players, where you didnt have the helping line, to help you guide the ball in, and it would be great with more game modes to and other types of cue sport games, but I guess I cant really blame the game on that, because it is called Pure Pool, so thats probably the only type of games that we will get :D

Purchased this game for a friend and myself and aside from the horrible lag we had fun for a day or two. since then we cannot connect to each other and to anyone else for that matter. Pool Nation was on sale to $1.00 recently and my friends and I have not looked back.

Graphics are gorgeous and the physics seem prety good, but the controls are very sluggish and unintuitive...as a huge fan of the old Virtual Pool Hall games, i was excited to see a new Pool game. But from playing the VPH series (where you move the screen around freely with the mouse instead of having to use different buttons/combinations to manipulate movements), this was much slower going and pretty frustrating at times which obviously takes away from any fun. VPH also had a much smoother machanic on the cue stroke. A shame really, because like i said; the graphics are great to look at and the physics seem pretty good.

Ive been looking for a decent pool game and this one ticks all the boxes. The visuals are stunning, perhaps the best Ive seen for a pool game. The gameplay is great and really enjoyable to play. Its nice to kick back and chill out and play a few frames. Not played online yet but will do at some point. Highly recommend.

So far from what I've played, the visual look absolutly stunning, with nice shiny balls and tables, and the area around with the sounds look and sounds nice, and it's so good i actually feel like im in a high class club playing pool.Now actually going into gameplay, compared to Pool Nation, it's different in the way you control it where they made the mouse visible now and you control most of the game by clicking-n-holding and draging, I would have prefered PN's controls but in Pure Pool it feels more heavy and precise.Haven't tried out the multiplayer yet because of server issues, but I would pressume it would be the same normal fun that's had in Pool nation.The ball phyics in it is an overal improvement from the previous title, aside from hiting the white ball with (as hard/fast as you can) feels a little bit off, i want to say not realistic in way i guess.But overall it's a nice improvement over the old pool game and would recomened it at the price, with hopefully a few more updates and tweaks to the game, Pure Pool will/is the best pool game out there.

Playing more of the game, i found out that the unrealistic physics the game has is the result of bugged Keyboard and mouse controls, this stoped being an issue as soon as i plugged in a controler.The only portion of the game is fixed, but it's annoying to get a match going where you will see a list of online players and have to send them a challenge to play with them, but you don't know if they want to play with you or responed, so you would sit there waiting and waiting. I don't know why they would just make a 'find a match' option and would put players together as soon as possible to play together online. Plus the PC controls are clunky.

so as of this moment in time, i would suggest waiting a month or two before getting the game, and let them tweak, fix, and update the game to make it less buggy, more controller optimized, and hopefully add a lobby system.Or just get the PS4 version and not the PC version if you want it now.

I've been an avid pool player in real life for over 20 years and after seeing the screen shots and trailer for Pure Pool I was really looking forward to it coming out. I was not disappointed.

Pure Pool will no doubt draw many comparisons with the other pool game on Steam, Pool Nation. I've played a ton of Pool Nation and I think Pool Nation looked cool but was very arcade when you got right down to it. The crazy swerve shots and jumps you could do and were REQUIRED to do for certain challenges were fun but no where near realistic.

Pure Pool is much more grounded in real life. Your view is locked to what you would see if you were aiming a shot on a real table, aside from the aiming lines of course. There is no overhead view or birds-eye view of the table. You can "Stand Up" from your aiming view and walk around the table and move the view about as high as I could go if I was on my tip-toes over the table but that's it. It feels very real and makes aiming a shot much more difficult. Long shots the length of the table take skill just like in real pool.

From what I've played of Pure Pool and I'm loving it so far. My only criticism of the game is that it has clearly been designed with a controller in mind. I would highly recommend this game be played with a 360 pad as the keyboard controls are not awful but slightly sluggish when compared to the responsiveness you get with a pad.

I like that the game has strived for realism though. The way you move around the table as you would in real life and your view being is limited, no overhead view, only being able go as high as you could on your tip-toes to survey the table. It really does feel like real pool.

Like I said, I love it. I'd highly recommend this game. One of the best pool games I've played since the days of Virtual Pool 3. This game is as close to real life pool as I think you will get without buying your own table for the back room.

I'll be basing my experiences so far on 100 or so hours with Virtual Pool 4, & VooFoo's previous pool title, Hustle Kings. Keep in mind that some of my issues might have been addressed by the time you've read this review, but I'll try to keep it as current as possible.

Positives:Very clean visually. Probably the best looking pool title on the market.Plenty of table customization. Logos/patterns are easily turned off, and there's several colours of cloth available.The cloth feels closer to the real thing than any other pool sim I've played. I can actually see/feel the backspin grip into it.Plenty of content to keep you going, especially at the price point.Fair £/€/$ conversion rate.

Negatives:I feel the game lacks a bit of cue power. It would be nice to be able to really nail a ball.The AI can sometimes take too long with each shot, with a weird faux aiming "effect" that just eats up time.Inverted controls for adding English to the ball/moving the ball - Not a settings issue.Sometimes, the game just doesn't seem to want to accept inputs, especially when wanting to add English to the ball.Mouse & Keyboard controls are pretty poor.Minor graphical issues.9 ball rules are incomplete (no push-out, 3 fouls, etc).

Overall, I'd recommend it. It will be a very good game once the few little issues it has are ironed out, but right now, just treat it like an unpolished gem - The core is there, and it's very, very good.

This is a really fun game that oozes quality in every aspect and imo the best pool game that is currently available on Steam. It also has a strong focus on online multiplayer and it's quick and easy to find a game against someone. [EDIT: Online is pretty dead at the moment, so beware of that before buying]

It has FANTASTIC graphics, easily the best out of any pool game I've ever seen. The depth of field effect in particular is excellent and very visually pleasing. There's real time ball reflections and incredibly detailed textures so much so I swear you can almost feel and smell that fresh pool table cloth ahhhh.

The sound is solid with a good meaty smack when the balls hit each other. There's quite a nice jazz soundtrack with a subtle but convincing crowd ambience and along with the great visuals and lack of UI creates a really engaging atmosphere.

Physics seem good. The balls always behave as I would expect them too. They seem to have a solid realistic weight to them and I haven't noticed any weird quirks. I have on occasion made a ball bounce off the table from whacking it with full force which is to be expected and it is good to see it simulated, rather than having the balls arbitrarily stuck to the table. But don't get me wrong there's no weird floaty aracade physics.

The controls may feel odd at first but with practice it feels intuitive. It supports both controller and mouse and keyboard, although many people have expressed that the mouse and keyboard controls are clunky and awkward to use. I personally use the controller in which you hold the right thumbstick down to distance your cue and slam it forward to hit the ball. It feels very satisfying once you nail it and I think this is about the closest a game has captured what it's really like to hold a cue and hit the ball; there's no arbitary power bar here. Be warned that there's no overheard view however, it's strictly first person view which I don't mind personally as it feels closer to playing real pool.

Perhaps it's not as in-depth or as realistic as something like Virtual Pool 4, but it is very fun and my personal favourite pool game yet. It is hands down the most immersive pool game out there. My only real complaint is there's no Snooker, but hopefully that's coming in a future DLC.

Is this a game with the same physics as virtual pool 3d sadly no. The thing about the physics when you drop to the bottom of the ball to have back spin and do a power shot it should spin back hard but never does. It lacks many things that virtual pool 3d got right like the spin shots around opponents balls. Is it fun Yes! The game needs a patch badly the field of view is lacking a lot and thus far I haven't seen a table with the diamonds to help give reference to bank shots that would greatly improve the game. My biggest complaint is Mantis App Crashed. Please attach a debugger. and we're not given anything more than that to work on why this game crashes. And it crashes a lot, specially when you are about to win a match then black screen then crash report. So you lost all of your advancements. Lowering settings helps but doesn't fix. I have an Intel 960 with 24 gigs of ram and Nvidia 650 with 2gigs of ddr5 ram so I more than have a rig that can run this at max settings. Now the good points, It looks really nice all the table options and felts lets you take charge of how you want to view the game. The aim has a nice angle pointer to show you when you have your shot lined up. The music is nice and not distracting. The amount of swing you put into the cue is great. I do recommend the game cause even with its faults it's a pleasure to play.

I've played this quite a lot. It's a good pool game with problems. Mainly unreliable online play, frequent crashes (although not for everyone) and poor mouse controls. I recommend using a controller.I wrote this review in August. Since then, nothing has changed. It still has many annoying problems. The developers don't provide any info on when things will be fixed or even if they're making any progess. They didn't even seem aware of their own game's problems.

Multiplayer:Finding a match is currently difficult. There isn't a lobby to speak of. Instead, you challenge another player and wait for them to accept or ignore. There's a Quick Match option but I've never found a game this way. If you get into a game, it might play fine. More likely, you'll experience one of the many possible bugs or server issues. You can't mute mics. There is no in-game chat.

Presentation:The actual pool is very pretty. The best I've seen. The UI is not. It could be improved a lot.

Audio:Personally, I don't like the music but some people really do. I turn it off. The pool sounds are fine. No complaints there.

Gameplay:When it works, it plays great, for the most part. Sometimes you can't see a shot as well as you would like but it's mostly fine.There's a career mode which is just ok. It's just a bunch of different game types against various AI.The AI isn't great. It pretends to be human so it can be slow. It also can't do bank shots, doubles or plants. It can get out of almost any snooker and doesn't play tactically at all. It just makes amazing pots but it's very beatable most of the time.You can play US 8-ball, 9-ball, UK 8-ball and a few others like killer and various potting/speed challenges.

So, it needs work. If it was an early access game, I'd say it's a great alpha, a decent beta. Released too early.The devs don't say a lot so I'm just hoping they'll get this game up to a decent standard.

Visuals - 10/10 Best looking table top game I have come across to datePhysics - 10/10 More fine tuned and realistic compared to Pool NationAudio - 10/10 Ive found out I like smooth jazz more than I ever imagined

As its stands the game has a lot going for, but like most games these days it needs some work. Camera angles are funky at times, running in full screen on 1080p seems to crash the game (for me at least) I had to launch windowed at 720p then alt+enter to get into full screen. A lot of peole are having network issues, as am I. There is customization, as of now it doesnt seem as exstensive as Pool Nation but this game has a lot that game didnt. So I recomment the game to the fans of great pool games, just letting it be known at this time it has its issues... but so did Pool Nation on its release.

While the game mechanics itself are good, there are way too many negative aspects to this game to actually recommend it. In other reviews you can read all about the great graphics, nice music, good physics. However, most reviewers fail to name the negatives, of which there are plenty. Let me name just a few points which will frustrate you every time you encounter them.

-The menus are extremely wonky. It sometimes takes the game well over 5 seconds to do what you told it to do, which may be as simple as restarting a gamemode you just played. Sometimes the menus don't even work and you just keep pressing Enter without anything happening (this happens a lot when you attempt to enter a multiplayer game, the menu switches between "Quick Match" and the game mode selection screen).

-There is no fullscreen. If you try to play full screen the game crashes on start up. Using Alt + Enter you can get to fullscreen, but only up to 1280x720.

-You can't turn off the sound while ingame. You can turn down the sliders, but there will still be really soft sound in the background. To enable or disable sound you have to restart the game.

This game feels (and probably is) a very, very poor console port. The gameplay is solid and you will probably enjoy it, but the menus and especially the lack of full-screen is extremely frustrating. How they thought this was an acceptable product for sale is beyond me, because there are lots of probably easy to fix issues.

- a better viewing angle to see the pool table better;- better servers because often it doesn't connect;- a better menu graphics;- a graphic optimization for lower pc's (I got a 2.1Mhz processor, but it goes slow also with low settings)- more typology of game (such as "italian pool")

I've played a lot of pool games. This one wins them all by virtue of completely believable physics, a fantastic, beautifully designed environment, and a focus on online gameplay. As Foolinjection's review points out, there is no top-down veiw, keeping the gameplay as pure as possible. You can stand up and walk around the table, kneel down to check ball placements, but you must return and line up your shot the same way you would at a real pool table.

Pros - -VooFoo is extremely well-versed in creating amazing looking, physics-true pool games.-"Pure Pool" plays like its name. No cheat view to line up and shoot from the table lamp's eye of sight. -The price for this game is VERY reasonable, even while not on sale!-Rich focus on online gameplay.-Achievements, trading cards, controller support! (I play with gamepad and it is very functional and responsive)-VooFoo DNA is a remarkable way to play against your friends or other challengers from online play, even when you are offline. It learns the play-style of players and is basically an AI version of that player! Revolutionary! EXCELSIOR!

Cons--the UI is needing much improvement. -inverted X axis on placing cue ball. There seems to be no workaround except for turning your brain into a mirror perspective when finding good placement on the table.-unlike Hustle Kings, no option to play your music library instead of theirs, the cool jazzy soundtrack isn't horrible though, and you can always set the music volume down so you can pipe in your tunes from elsewhere. -sometimes my connection to network isnt great, this is probably my janky DSL though.(+EDIT+ seems to be the server. Lots of people complaining- devs need to update optimization)-the game can prove to be pretty difficult if you are grinding for stars and achievements. Probably not a "con" for everyone, but my wife gets stressed out when I've been cussing for an hour and a half about how all I want to do is pot two balls in the side pockets consecutively!...and finally...-you're reading this review, and not playing it! Just get it, already!!

(EDIT)

Alright, after looking through forums on this game, it seems many people are having trouble with it. Either on the program itself working on their machines or on network gameplay. Lots of people having problems with controls and complaining about UI. I do get where they are coming from, but I have hope that VooFoo and the publisher will be releasing optimization updates and patches for improving those situations, and hopefully an improvement to the UI is in the works. Also there is only one venue for playing as of now. I still insist that I'm having fun playing and still would recommend the game.

I've played Virtual Pool 3 for years and loved it. However, I couldn't get it to run under Windows 8 and so gave Pure Pool a try. While it has potential, I was disappointed by this game. The thing that bothered me most was your view of the stick/cue ball. You REALLY should be able to adjust this, but it appears to be fixed. After playing with this game for a few hours I downloaded the demo version of Virtual Pool 4. It works perfectly with my Windows 8 machines and is, IMHO, a MUCH better pool game for the PC than Pure Pool. I ended up buying the full version of Virtual Pool 4 for $29.99 and will chalk up (no pun intended) the $12,99 I spent on Pure Pool to experience. Don't waste your money on this game.